TQ #3: Living in Limbo

When asked in a recent survey, to teachers and professionals in a technological field, “did you think, when you were a child, that you would be leading the technological life that you are?” only 20% believed that they would be following the path that their life has led. I think many of the reasons that contributed to a life that is different than expected is because of the giant strides that technology has made in the past number of years. One thing that I often think hasn’t made as many giant strides is education. Many of the reasons for this are that teachers, meaning adults, sometimes find difficultly in learning to utilize newer technology to its fullest potential. And in my experience, excuses are sometimes made about why a new technology is not good for the greater cause instead of learning how students relate to the technology and therefore doing more to cater to the minds that we are looking to meld.
After listening to Gee (I found an interview with James Paul Gee done by edutopia.org), I was quickly changing my mind back to my original opinions I held when I was in high school. In high school, I was convinced that computers should have a greater role in classroom settings and for my graduation project; I was out to prove my opinions. And although my research was nothing profound, I learned one important thing- in the right settings, anything can happen and in the wrong settings, your expected outcome won’t happen. Now, sitting on the other side of the fence, I think to myself how as a whole, there are more diagnoses for students, more labels for the learner, and more ways to make an excuse for the child. Which came first- the chicken or the egg? Did we create a catch 22, where we, with the help of technology have created a society with students who have all of these needs? Or- did we create all of these needs because of the more open eyes we have with the new technology. Either way, it’s done- now my feeling is that we have to deal with it and provide for it. Learning has to occur and if it’s not working the traditional way then things have to change.
After hearing Gee speak of video games (both gaming platforms and computer games), I’ve begun to hear more of the potential good that gaming can cause. Games, as stated by Gee, are an every moment constant assessment. They give you a task and if you don’t complete it you are told to do it again. Another positive about games is that they give you instructions to succeed. They are there in the beginning and even when you don’t succeed; so that you can take the time to reread them and try again. Games allow you to organize into groups, which according to Gee, is the future of the workforce. People will have to know how to work together and Gee states that gaming helps to teach students to do this. Gee also mentioned how it has been said that students do not do a lot of writing outside of the classroom, yet Gee argues that all of the social networks and the connection with media and the internet encourages students to write about things like “fan fiction” (Gee, 2008). Gee speaks about how teachers need to become de-professionalized so that they are not leading a scripted instruction. I find all of Gee’s statements to be truth as far as to where education is headed- the real truth now, will be, how long will it be until it takes affect?
Being a teacher, and knowing what our world is headed towards, I want to hold onto the morals that I was taught in school, yet still embrace the new changes. I find myself torn between knowing that letters are being replaced with emails, formal invitation cards are being replaced with evite websites, and individual assessments are being replaced by what the group can accomplish. So how do we make the break from accepting that these are things of the past? Gee also spoke of students as living lives that are cross-platform whereas many teachers see them separately. How do we find the balance between the student lifestyles and the teacher’s knowledge and comfort level? How/when do we get everyone on board with the wave of the future and will this new wave enable us to live successfully or dwell on what is lost?
As far as my own experiences go with gaming, I used to be involved with them in school when they were a way to do extra work without actually seeming like work. However, now, as an adult, I’ve found myself creating excuses for the way that I should spend my time. I do have to say, after playing the recent group of games, I might be more inclined to find time to play more computer games. The three games that I chose to experience were Age of Empires 2, Oregon Trail 5, and the Sim version that I chose to play was SimCopter. With Age of Empires, when I thought I was doing really well against the computer, I wasn’t. When I thought I was gathering adequate gold, wood, and food, along with moving myself through the ages, it was only mediocre according to what the computer could accomplish in the same time frame. (And don’t think that the few moments it takes to get laundry out of the washer would make a difference- my entire militia, consisted of about a dozen was taken out in the time that I was gone!). If I were to work all the way through the game again in more depth, I think that I would be able to relate much of what was done to real life learning situation- survival of the fittest. (As you can see the screen captures from this version of Age of Empires do not view very clearly- so I found a similar copy of what my screen looked like. And in response to how “well” I did, the only stars I earned were for learning about the ages in the quickest amount of time.) After replaying Oregon Trail, this latest version of Oregon Trail that I downloaded got me rethinking the use for it in the classroom. I was very impressed how there was actual conversation occurring with “local” people along with the option to learn about a story of “real-time” Oregon Trail goers. I think this idea of conversation to learn more is an important skill that this newer version can remind children. Another feature that I enjoyed seeing in this newer version is the idea of keeping a diary. Students can type their thoughts or reminders that they want to leave themselves or others for future games. This reinforces what Gee was saying about gaming today. As you can see, I did not do so well in the Oregon Trail. Again, I thought I was motoring along just fine, until a bullet wound and a near-fatal drowning cost me the game. [Please don’t think I’m a horrible gamer- I have won before but my ways of “testing the game” left me in the loser’s circle :( ] Last, but not least, is another game that I’m revisiting from my childhood- SimCopter. This is a game where you use real-life simulation of a rescue hero trying to save the day. The only unfortunate thing is that I haven’t found the most efficient way for the pickup and delivery of the “saved ones”. This game as the others has the potential to show real-life experience to the children who play it. As far as my opinion on all of these games, what’s the best practice in getting children to know the connection between real-life and real-life-like games? Many times in life you can’t get the chance to be “killed” and start new again.

Class Two Assignments

Assn #1 - I completed "An Introduction to Poets and Poetry" by Jenni Riggi for the webquest evaluation. I felt that it was an easy assignment that any one of my students could easily complete. This I liked. However, what I didn't like was that it was very specific as to the poets the maker chose, which didn't give the students a broad range of poets to explore. Also, it was an individual assignment which did not lend itself to the typical webquest layout where conversation/collaboration is the cornerstone of the time spent. I think this webquest would be beneficial, however, to help me to write my own for the beginning of our poetry unit which was the intention of the webquest.

Assn #2 - I'm impressed. I ran through a mathematical simulation about airbags. This brought me back to my days in AP Physics. The activities started out being on the slower side and I wasn't too excited at first but then after I got to step 2 and 3, I was definitely entrigued by the simulations and ability to draw graphs on the site. I am going to email my old Physics teacher to tell her about the site and see if she finds it useful in the classroom. (In my position, I did not find it's usefulness yet- just as the subject and abilities are not supported for my classroom.)

Assn #3 - This assignment made me chuckle as the day before our Thursday class, I was advised by my supervisor to find uses for SurveyMonkey in the classroom to double check homework etc. And then in school on Thursday my team had decided to use it to collect data from the entire team and I was heading the production of the survey. Thus far, I have found it very easy to use (as long as you don't want more than 10 questions - you have to pay then). I really enjoy the way that it collects the data and easily displays it to the creator. One negative is the length of the web address but with the benefits of a website, creating a link is simple. Anyway: Here's my link to the survey that I created for this class.

-->  Out of the four people that responded to my survey, 3 of them, while going through school did not believe that they would be following the technological path that they've led in their life thus far.  There was a 50/50 split as to prefer Mac vs PC- pre Vista.  Three of the four people have used SurveyMonkey before in order to gain feedback on training (evaluation) they've led or gaining information about students or professionals that they are going to lead.  I myself found SurveyMonkey useful in order to collect data about our entire team, students or parents, in order to gain more knowledge throughout the year. 

TQ #1: frameworks for technology-based educational activities

As I lead my students through a bout of researching, writing, and presenting through persuasive speeches, these two articles began to make me think about where I am heading and what my intentions are for my students and self. Currently, in English class, students are preparing to write persuasive speeches and they are using computers as their medium for creating the product. As to the two chapters, as I was continually reading through them, I was thinking about all of the questions that I run into as a teacher who wants to incorporate technology into as much as possible. Very often as a younger teacher who has known school settings to include computers, many of the statements that we said in this book and article, bring up the questions as to the worth that some of our activities have to the students.

In Chapter One of Jonassen, he brought up the idea that technologies are only used best when there is an active, intentional plan, and when reflection or collaboration is included. Very often, I feel that in my past, educators felt that by using a computer in a project, students were gaining something from the activity. In a similar fashion, many administrators, at least in my experience, look to find technology in a lesson plan. According to Koehler and Mishra, that can mean any tool created by human knowledge. In my opinion, many technologies are something new, something innovative, and sometimes something that students don't typically get to use in class or at home. To me, the point of utilizing technology in the classroom is to connect student's outside world of recreation and lifestyle with the curriculum of the district. By utilizing technology, students can begin to find connections between the two worlds and in my hope, find more interest in the subjects that are not their favorites because of the technologies used. All in all, I agree with what Jonassen is saying that a plan, collaboration, and reflection need to be involved, just as these are pieces of a student's lifestyle outside of school whenever technology is involved, therefore it should be done in school as well.

As to the difficulties of the articles, I felt that the Koehler and Mishra article was hard to read in its format. When citing too many these and those, I find it very difficult to read and comprehend the content. I believe I understood the general outline of what technology's role in classroom should be and the TPCK model. From what I understand of the article, I understand the TPCK model and for the most part agree with the model. In my opinion, Koehler and Mishra stated that optimum teaching occurs when all three knowledges are combined to create the center most "triangle"- the technological pedagogical content knowledge. However, I believe that it may not always be possible or plausible to incorporate all three knowledges into every lesson. I also feel that if we use the same technologies or the same practices of teaching to display the variety of content that this model will prove to be ineffective. I believe that when a careful balance of a variety of technologies and pedagogical techniques are used that optimum learning can occur.

With all of this being said, my opinion of the articles include a variety of opinions in that I do not completely agree with one article or the other, but that I find pieces of both that I agree with and hope to remind myself of when future activities are created.

Integrating Technology- night one

Here it is.. night one- class number three.